Knitting. Quilting. Sewing. Motherhood. Cleaning. Just kidding about the cleaning.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

What Do You Mean "The Olympics Are Over"?

Hi guys!

Sorry to keep you hanging. I had a little shop update this week, and that tends to mess with my already-irregularly-scheduled blogging.

In case you didn't guess this already: I'm still knitting!

First of all, thank you to everyone who cheered me on, everyone who didn't say I was crazy, and everyone who didn't call me a loser!

Here's a summary of the past several days:

My 2010 Knitting Olympic Assumptions(that turned out to be wrong):

1. Because I was knitting with the same/and/or/similar yarn, my gauge would be the same as this sweater, so no need to swatch.

2. Losing 2 days because my gauge was off was no big deal.

3. Knitting stockinette, even with fingering weight yarn, would be super-quick.

4. When I got to the colorwork section, it would be even quicker, because it was fun.

5. Picking colors out of my scrap bin, on the fly, without swatching, would work out great. (see photo above--colors that are too varigated or have highlights that match the background color don't work out great for fair isle patterning because you lose the pattern.)

And the BIG ONE:

6. Somehow, magically, because the Olympics were on: my family wouldn't need to eat, my kids would go off to boarding school, and the rest of my life would stop so I could be enveloped in a beautiful cloud of magical knitting and nothing else.

Yeah, that "beautiful cloud of magical knitting" thing didn't work out the way I had planned. Do I have any regrets? No. (Not to get all philosophical on you, forgive me) but I don't believe in regrets. Especially over knitting! So, I picked an overly ambitions project. However, it was a sweater that I wanted to knit, and I'm knitting it! And I'm almost done! I am really happy with this sweater, and now that the actual Olympics are over, I'm on the fun colorwork part. Albeit, the very slow colorwork part. I should be done in a few days--at least the plan is to be able to wear this sweater to the Madison Knit-In (I'm vending) next weekend. Onward!

I don't know who told you the Olympics are over? I just checked my Tivo this morning and the Opening ceremonies are there!My Olympic quilt is at the same stage as your sweater.Guess I was to busy cheerleading to finish it!

Don't feel badly, Emily. I was just knitting an afghan with the Lizard stitch and still didn't manage to get it done during the Olympics. And I don't have little kids at home. I did try to knit in the hospital when I spent the night after my surgery but I discovered that it's pretty much impossible to do when you are getting Dilaudid for pain!!